Various plastic bags are presently manufactured and are being used for holding and storing all types of materials and items ranging from nuts and bolts to meats and cookies. Such bags are generally made of a thin film of plastic and also range in size and holding capacity. Bags of this character are available to home owners as single bag units. Some such bags include reclosable zippers whereby the bag is selectively openable and closable.
Deli markets and manufacturers of various products also utilize plastic bags for holding and storing their products. In these applications, it is quite often important that the bags be quickly accessible and fillable. Although numerous mechanical means have been devised for filling plastic bags with a desired product, many bag uses, such as in delis, unit dose pill packs, parts packaging by O.E.M.'s, butcher shops, etc., require manual filling of the bags.
In the past, various bags and structures have been devised for such manual filling and for making the bags easily accessible and fillable. In this regard, Membrino, U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,068 discloses pads of plastic bags including a plurality of bag units stacked upon one another and attached at a salvage portion. A score line is provided in the salvage portion adjacent the mouth of the bag so as to permit tearing away of each bag unit from the salvage portion which is connected to a handle portion and, thereafter, for filling as needed. Furthermore, Membrino, U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,503 discloses connecting together the salvage portions so as to resist the forward pull on the lip of a bag as the bag is being torn away so that the bag may more readily be substantially fully opened and severed from the respective salvage portion at the same time. Various plates and bars are disclosed with an upstanding lug for insertion through a central slot and providing a generally A-frame support. As another support structure, a box tray is disclosed whereupon the pad of bags are stapled and making an A-type frame. Another U.S. patent entitled "Block Sealed Flexible Saddle Bags", U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,780 also discloses facilitating the removal of a bag from a stack or block.
These various pads of bags and support structures adapted for manual filling, however, are undesirable and include substantial shortcomings and drawbacks. For example, most such packs require that the bag unit first be completely ripped away from the pack and support structure prior to being able to obtain access to the opening for opening the bag and filling the same. As can be appreciated, this is a two hand operation and, quite often, requires tremendous coordination by the user to properly hold the bag open and fill the same with various size products. Further, even if the bag unit is openable while on the pack or support structure, such as those disclosed in above discussed U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,305,503 and 4,560,068, the user quite often must still rip the bag unit completely off of the pack, shake the bag briskly so as to more fully open the mouth, and then proceed in the filling operation, again with two hands. As can be appreciated, with regard to bag units that are openable while on the pack or support structure and which are, thereafter, ripped off of the pack before filling, the necessary shacking of the bag by the operator so that it may be more fully opened is time consuming. Lost time in shaking open bags becomes substantially significant and increases the cost of the overall manual filling operation. Furthermore, such packs for manual filling operations do not utilize bags with reclosable zippers which are quite often desirable by the end user for selectively opening and closing the bag as desired.
Accordingly, a need exists for bag units in packs, or otherwise, for use in manual filling operations whereby the bag units are easily openable prior to being severed from the pack or structure that they may be fixed upon. A need further exists for a support structure for the bag units or packs whereupon the bags may be opened prior to being severed from the pack or structure preferably using one hand. The bags must also be easily fillable, preferably by a single operator or user using one hand for holding the bag open and the other for dropping the various products therein. The bags should also be easily openable and severable from the pack or structure and must also preferably utilize a reclosable zipper. With regard to bags that are filled after being severed from the pack or the support structure, a need still exists for bag units that are easily openable and require substantially no shaking of the bag for opening, thus, decreasing the time needed for opening the bag, providing an open bag ready for filling and decreasing the overall cost of the filling operation.